One of the children in our class asked if he could bring a stick into the classroom…next thing we knew, we were all out in the school yard collecting sticks! The children enjoyed exploring.

One group of friends worked together to build a fire…

While others created different kinds of lines…

After some investigation outside we brought the sticks into the classroom. We placed a few on the carpet and asked the children what they noticed…

Here are some of their thoughts…

“the sizes are all different”

“some of them are squiggly”

“some are straight”

“big and small”

“some are tangled”

“some have different colours”

“some are curled and some are not”

“some are black”

“some are skinny”

“some are brown”

“some are stripey’

“some are bendy”

“one looks like the tentacle of an earwig”

During inquiry time we invited children to play with the sticks…

Two young ladies decided to make a farm by incorporating the little, rubber animal manipulatives. Knowing how limiting these materials can be to children’s thinking we wondered what would happen if we asked them to remove them from their play…

This is what happened next…

“a zig zag” “a squiggly line”

Followed by representations of the letters in their name…

“A for Abbey” “swinging A” (the A is on a necklace)

At our closing circle, we invited each child to place a stick anywhere on the carpet.

We asked the children what their thoughts were about our new creation…

It looks like…

“stairs”

“a man”

“it needs something where it’s open”

“a little mountain”

“a butterfly”

“a decoration”

“a spiderweb and I hate spider webs”

Together as a classroom community we made a beautiful creation…What a wonderful first encounter with sticks and each other…